The milestone is even more important because his name has never been mentioned with steroid, HGH or any other illegal supplement.

Griffey played his first game in the major leagues 20 years ago and at the age of 19. He had the most graceful swing and the kid could smash the ball.

They called him “Junior,” a nickname my father gave me because Griffey was one of my favorite players to watch.

I would wear a Seattle Mariners’ hat backwards and walk with a strut trying to emulate “Junior.”

Griffey was one of those players you just had to enjoy watching.

He could rob home runs with ease, gun down baserunners from the center field position and swipe bases at will.

I remember the first time seeing Griffey play in person. It was at Jacobs Field in Cleveland on a July evening. It was the Indians-Mariners.

Seattle’s lineup was loaded. Besides Griffey, it had Alex Rodriguez and Jay Buhner.

Junior doubled earlier in the game off the wall. In the seventh inning, he drilled a pitch into the upper deck — a moon shot.

Since then, I saw him play two other times, both with the Reds. Today at the age of 38, Griffey still has the sweetest swing in the game. 

In my opinion, Griffey is the most talented player to ever play. Just imagine how many more home runs he’d have if he would have stayed healthy.

Congrats “Junior” on the milestone.

Thomas W. “Pete” Pittman never stopped teaching, whether it was in the classroom or on the athletic field.

On May 30, former New Bern High School football coach Chip Williams had his last conversation with Pittman. His former assistant coach was undergoing treatment at a hospital, but was still giving Williams some words of advice.

One week later, on Friday, Pittman died, and New Bern lost a longtime educator, coach and friend.

“I had just taken the job at Scotland County, and Pete used to coach at Richmond County and that is a big rivalry,” Williams said. “Even though Pete was in pain, he was coaching me on how to beat Richmond County. He coached me up until the very last.”

Pittman is survived by his wife, Phyllis Willis, who is a teacher and former basketball and softball coach at New Bern; two sons, Charles and Thomas Pittman II; his brother Nathan Pittman and daughter-in-law, Marcia, of Fayetteville.

Pittman, who lived in River Bend, was an assistant football and track coach at New Bern, as well as a social studies and history teacher, from 1998 to 2006.

He attended St. Paul’s Catholic Church and enjoyed playing golf at River Bend Country Club.

“He was a great person who loved sports and loved working with kids,” said current New Bern football coach Bobby Curlings, who was an assistant football coach with Pittman. “He did a great job at it. I can’t say enough about him. He made us a lot better for being here.”

Pittman was a teacher and coach for 33 years. He coached at Seventy-First High School and Gray’s Creek in Cumberland County and at Richmond County and West Carteret schools.

He was an assistant coach at New Bern for three state championship games.

“He was a total part of the program, everything we were trying to put together -from taking kids home to running study halls to whatever it took to try and help the program,” Williams said. “New Bern has had a lot of success and he was a large part of it.”

While at New Bern, Pittman coached football under Williams and track under Mark Robison.

“All the kids really respected coach Pittman and what he could bring to athletics,” Robison said. “He was a great teacher. He could teach whatever needed to be taught to those kids. He was a well-rounded guy.”

Pittman coached the running backs and safeties for New Bern, touching the lives of hundreds of high school athletes.

He helped develop players such as University of Tennessee running back Montario Hardesty, Katawba College running back Kory Fisher, East Carolina safety Chris Mattocks and East Carolina tight end Davon Drew.

But it was not just his influence on the track or the football field that made Pittman so well liked.

“Coach Pittman was big part of my life, especially through high school, that was my friend,” said Hardesty, a junior at Tennessee. “He really bought into my football career as a coach and as a person. I was in his class and he was pretty much a mentor in my life.”

When reminiscing about Pittman’s influence on his life, two stories come to Hardesty’s mind.

Pittman never called Mattocks, a former New Bern safety, by his name. He was always “Mad Dog.”

Pittman was also a fan of former Florida State running back Greg Jones and his aggressive running style.

“When someone ran someone over on the football field, he always called it ‘Jonesing’ somebody and I still say that today,” Hardesty said.

Former New Bern assistant coach Beau Williams, who coached with Pittman for six years, also recalled a fond memory on Saturday.

“One day we were doing safety drills and our quarterback Davon Drew threw a ball over the cornerback’s head and one of the guys took out Pittman,” Williams said. “His little Stetson hat went up flying and then he got up about ready to kill somebody. There are a bunch of them, but some of them I can’t put in the paper.”

Drew, a 2004 graduate of New Bern, played quarterback for the Bears, piling up a career record of 30-3. He credits a lot of his success to Pittman.

“He helped me learn the offense and making reads,” Drew said. “We had a good relationship because of track too. Coach Pittman had a good attitude toward people and helping them out and he was a good person.”

Pittman touched many people’s lives, but the main thing the longtime teacher cared about was his students and their education.

“When I go home he always asks me how I was doing and how my grades were,” Mattocks said. “That was his biggest concern with his being a history teacher. He always cared about our grades and getting that degree first.”

The Tar Heels will play Saturday against the winner of LSU and UC-Irvine. 

The Tar Heels added two runs in the top of the ninth building on its lead.

Carolina pitcher Rob Wooten slammed the door on Coastal in the bottom of the ninth, securing their 14-4 victory.

New Bern High graduate Adam Warren (9-1) picked up the win for UNC.

The Tar Heels’ bullpen gave up four runs.

However, UNC is still in charge with a 12-4 advantage entering the top of the eighth inning.

North Carolina: 12 runs, 15 hits, 0 errors

Coastal Carolina: 4 runs, 5 hits, 3 errors.

Warren stands as the pitcher of record, as he leaves with a 12-0 lead.

Warren pitched six innings, gave up two hits and walked four.

After walking a batter, CCU’s Dock Doyle blooped a two-out single to center field. Doyle, who was drafted by the New York Mets in last week’s draft, entered the game with a .372 batting average.

Warren got the next batter to fly out. The UNC junior is pitching a solid game.

Coastal Carolina decides to put in a new pitcher. No. 5 Cody Wheeler takes the mound. Wheeler is 6-0 with a 5.21 ERA on the season.

Tar Heels’ Tim Fedroff leads the sixth off with a walk. Tim Federowicz walks and Kyle Seager knocks home Fedroff with a single through the right side of the infield.

Ferderowicz advances to third with no outs.  Seager swipes second base.

Chad Flack, a .274 hitter on the season, rips an RBI single to center. Wheeler is pulled from the game without recording an out.

With runners on first and third and no outs, Garrett Gore’s sacrifice fly scores Seager.

Heading to the bottom of the sixth, the Tar Heels have 12 runs on 14 base hits.

Because the ball did not touch the second baseman, Bortnick was credited with a hit.

The first batter in the inning popped out, the second hitter flew out to center and the four batter in the inning grounded out to UNC’s shortstop.

Warren’s stat line through five: 0 runs, 1 hit, 3 walks.

Seth Williams followed with a single to left field, sending home Seager with two outs. Ryan Graepel then blooped a single to right field, scoring Gore.

Dustin Ackley knocked in Williams for the third run of the inning. Ackley is the catalyst of the Tar Heels’ offense. Through five innings, Ackley has three hits. He entered the game as a .404 hitter.

Halfway through the game, the Tar Heels look like they are headed to Omaha, Neb. The score after five and a half is UNC 9, Coastal 0.

Warren fanned his second batter of the game with one out in the fourth. The former New Bern star fired a fastball past the Chanticleer’s best hitter Dock Doyle.

Warren then struck out CCU’s David Anderson to end the inning. His no-hitter is still intact after four innings.